{"id":77,"date":"2010-02-06T20:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T01:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=77"},"modified":"2010-02-06T20:00:25","modified_gmt":"2010-02-07T01:00:25","slug":"experiencing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/experiencing-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiencing God"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a book by John Allen, Jr. called The Future Church<\/em> (2009 Doubleday Press) in which he talks about issues that the Church faces in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Today I was reading the chapter on Pentecostalism.\u00a0 One of the considerations he writes about is our experience of God (393).\u00a0 Pentecostal worship is very different than the traditional Catholic experience.\u00a0 It is not a question of right or wrong but rather how we feel what is going on around us.\u00a0 In traditional Catholic Mass the congregation are passive participants while in the Pentecostal services feeling has a lot to do with it.\u00a0 The music and preaching are designed to draw the people into an active experience of God.<\/p>\n

God can be present in both churches.\u00a0 What helps draw you into a personal experience of God?\u00a0 Is it the quiet participation in a traditional Catholic Mass or is it the beat of a Pentecostal music group or a fiery preacher?\u00a0 For me, the Pentecostal music can be nice to draw me into the music but I find God in a deeper reflection and that means I need some time of peace.<\/p>\n

Allen also compares the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church to locally driven Pentecostal Church.\u00a0 While clericalism went too far in its pious reverence of priests I believe the hierarchical structure is needed to help us discern where God is leading us as a church.\u00a0 As individuals, the clergy are not perfect but we each have different gifts.\u00a0 Some are called to be leaders, some to teach, some to care for others.\u00a0 But as a human society we need leadership; a leadership that is NOT OVER the people but for the people.<\/p>\n

Part of what I like about the Catholic Church is that it does have a lot of offer in terms of its teaching.\u00a0 When we properly understand the teaching rooted in Christ, we can lead a better life.\u00a0 However, this requires not just a knowledge of church teaching but the guidance of the Holy Spirit to know what it means in our lives for us today.\u00a0 We need the Holy Spirit to know how we are called to live as individuals and as a society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the advantages to the Pentecostal churches is that they tend to be small and with the small size, the minister can better know each member of the church and be aware of their needs.\u00a0 As a Catholic priest\u00a0I am\u00a0very much aware of the larger sizes of our Catholic parishes and how hard it can be as a priest to know what is going on in the lives of the parishioners.\u00a0 I truly want to help people but I with so many people I need the people, you, to tell me what I can do to help.\u00a0 I cannot know on my own what your needs are.<\/p>\n

When I celebrate a funeral of a “stranger” I wonder if there is some way in which I should have been there for the person before they died.\u00a0 Please never think that I don’t care.\u00a0 I do.\u00a0 For instance, when I get called to see a dying person I always respond as fast as possible, dropping what I am doing.<\/p>\n

What is your experience of God in the Church?\u00a0 What draws you to the Catholic Church?<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a book by John Allen, Jr. called The Future Church (2009 Doubleday Press) in which he talks about issues that the Church faces in the 21st century. Today I was reading the chapter on Pentecostalism.\u00a0 One of the considerations he writes about is our experience of God (393).\u00a0 Pentecostal worship is …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Experiencing God’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-1f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}